Three gang members jailed for their part in a £12million drug smuggling operation

Three gang members who ran a drug smuggling operation have been jailed for a total of 24 years in the largest drug seizure at a UK port.

The drug smugglers from Birmingham tried to import £12million of Class A Drugs (heroin) which would have caused havoc in the streets of Birmingham.

Nadeem Aslam, 32, of Moseley attempted to sneak massive batch of drugs into Birmingham which he concealed under the floor boards of a lorry. He was sentenced to 16 years behind bars for conspiracy to import drugs at Birmingham Crown Court.

Nadeem Aslam, 32 jailed for 16 years.

Manjinder Thethy, 34, and Mohammad Khan, 35, of Birmingham were both jailed for four years after pleading guilty to ‘attempting to import Class A Drugs’.

Mohammad Jabbar, 35, (L) Manjinder Thethy, 34,(R) both jailed for four years.

A previous trial had to be cancelled due to one of the female juror’s drinking and fell asleep. She was fined £250.

Passing sentence Judge Michael Chambers said: “Heroin is a dangerous and pernicious drug which directly causes misery to addicts and their families and indirectly causes many other criminal offences and public and social concern.”

He further said, Nadeem Aslam’s main goal was to gain massive rewards for his drug smuggling involvement and he had no regards for human life.

“The heroin was concealed in a shipping container which came from Pakistan, ostensibly containing a shipment of sanitary wear.”

The court heard, the drugs came into Felixstowe docks where they were detected by the border agency after using a X ray device.

Then the border agency gave the green light to the lorry and it was allowed to carry on its way.

When the lorry arrived at a premises, Nadeem Aslam supervised the unloading of the containers full of drugs.

The police had then arrived and had taken them into custody.

The jugde said Nadeem Aslam was the main man in providing a business premises where the drugs were taken to and he was also a part of a previous ”dummy” run.

Defence lawyer, Zafar Ali who defended Nadeem Aslam in court said, he is a family man of a good character and he has only been involved in one drug smuggling operation as he was in debt of over £12,000.

Dawn Cartwright, from UK Border Force, said: “This was the biggest seizure of heroin at Felixstowe in recent years.

“The trade in illegal drugs is utterly abhorrent and the criminals who benefit do not care about the destructive impact it has on our communities. Make no mistake, with this investigation Border Force, supported by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, have brought significant criminals to justice. To have first made this seizure and to then have brought the smugglers before the courts is a huge testament to the hard work and professionalism of both the Border Force officers at the port and the investigators.”

The UK drug market has become the hot bed for criminals all over the world as UK has some of the highest users of drugs with the street value of drugs, some of the highest in Europe.

If you have witnessed a drug related crime you should contact the police on 101 or alternatively you can anonymously contact Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.